Thomas Cranmer.
(Bibles open to Romans 3)
Why is the reformation important for us?
- it actually marks the beginning of the “modern” period in history. The world changed … every area of life.
- Politically and socially,… new systems of government began.
- Most importantly for us….there were major changes in Christianity.
The western church (the church of Rome) split into Catholic and Protestant groups… which continues to today.
That is when it started.
Here are just some of the changes to church- (PPT)
- Church services went from Latin to English.
- the Bible was printed in English.
(we have the ESV, NIV,….. but then….it was Latin, and only the priest could read it)
- traditional beliefs about purgatory, confession, the worship of saints, the sale of religious relics, pilgrimages, shrines, processions for the dead, the mass….. were swept aside.
- ministers no longer required to be celibate. They could get married! monasteries and nunneries were closed and destroyed.
- and the pope was no longer regarded as infallible. He was no longer the head of the church in England, and in Germany, and many other countries of Europe.
Things we take for granted, were not always there.
(pause)
When and where was the reformation?
It started in 1517, with a man called Martin Luther.
He was a monk in Germany, and became a university professor in Germany.
Luther rediscovered the gospel.
He discovered 3 things, which became the great slogan of the reformation,
‘Christ alone, Bible alone, and faith alone’
Christ alone was the head of the church, not the pope.
The Bible alone was the sole and final source of teaching authority in the church, not Bible plus tradition.
Faith alone, not faith plus good works was the key to a right relationship with God.
-> Reformation day is today…
It was on October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the castle in Wittenberg.
These were translated and printed and then disseminated all over Europe, where he attacked the corruption in the church.
(pause)
The reformation spread throughout Europe.- Map of Europe.
All those things happened (list I read out before).
Up into Switzerland and Denmark.
Parts of France. And across into England.
(pause)
(Thomas Cranmer.)
But I wanted to talk about this man- Thomas Cranmer. The first archbishop of the Church of England.
For a couple of reasons..
Firstly, because we’re Anglican.
By studying this man, we understand our heritage.
Secondly, it’s the 450th year since he was burnt at the stake at Oxford University.
(pause)
B 1489.
Studied at Cambridge University.
Received a doctorate in Divinity at Cambridge.
He was a Cambridge don.
And he came under the eye of King Henry 8th.
A larger than life character, well educated, very religious… but also obsessive and a greatly feared…
(Henry hated Martin Luther.)
(pause)
In the 1520’s, the king wanted some advice.
He sought the advice of the university theologians- on what became known as “the king’s great matter”.
Henry wanted a male heir. After 18 years of marriage he didn’t have a son.
He wanted a male because he believed God wanted it that way…. he was convinced, that a male was essential for the stability of England. ->
Before Henry 7th (Henry’s older brother), there had been 30 years of civil war.
The last time England a woman inherited the crown it was Matilda, and there were lots of bloody wars.
(pause)
He had married Catherine of Aragon, from Spain. And she had been married to Henry 7th.
He had 3 sons, but they all died shortly after birth.
He then has a daughter- Mary.
> He became convinced that God was against his marriage he was convinced he’d married the wrong woman. And the pope, who had approved his marriage was wrong.
And so he sought an annulment.
The pope had said NO. So he sought advice elsewhere.
(pause)
Cranmer was consulted. He was working at the university.
Cranmer was not a Christian at first, but from the beginning had worked some things out… “Go back to the original”.
Go back to the Bible…. don’t go to the pope.
(he applied the Bible wrongly!…. he shouldn’t have married Henry),…. But he did try to understand the Bible on its own terms. And he married Henry in good conscience.
During this period, he traveled to Germany. He there married the daughter of a great German theologian. And it was here that he was converted.
(pause)
England broke with Rome.
He became the archbishop of Canterbury, and married Henry to Anne Boleyn.
And Cranmer set about, gradually reforming the church in England, with help from others, like Thomas Cromwell who was the king’s deputy.
He was the theological brains behind the reformation in England.
(pause)
(PPT)
In 1539 the great Bible is printed, and was is to go into every parish.
After Henry died, Edward VI became king, who was a protestant (unlike Henry), and Cranmer stepped up the pace of reforms….
He produced something called the Book of homilies 1547 (or sermons- one on the Bible, one on faith, one on good works, one on salvation).
They were to be read in the church. They didn’t have Bible colleges set up like Moore college, and most of the clergy are still Catholic, so what do you do…. write sermons to be read out in the churches.
He produced the “Book of Common Prayer”- two versions…1549 and 1552. Just fantastic…!
In the prayer book the psalms were to be read through once a monthly, the OT once a year, and the NT.
Up until then, the church had services daily… each day the church had mass, and that was so that you wouldn’t die unprepared to meet your maker.
> Cranmer said we needed to hear the Bible- THIS would make us prepared.
And “the articles of religion” 1552.
The doctrinal basis of the church.
-> And so, by 1553, England was a protestant country.
(pause) (pause) (pause)
Picture (PPT).
Now the most exciting thing about the reformation was that the gospel was rediscovered.
In the picture he has the New Testament opened up to one of Paul’s letters.
Cranmer believed that the centre of the Bible was the gospel,… and where do you find the gospel most clearly explained- Paul, and where in Paul-> Romans!
(Martin Luther had discovered the gospel after lecturing on Romans!)
(pause)
And this is what we can really learn from Cranmer (through his writings- the Prayer Book, and the Articles and the homilies).
-> He discovered, like Luther, that in the gospel….God’s righteousness is revealed. God is not angry with us,…
This was what the reformation was all about- rediscovering the good news.
(pause)
i. We are saved by grace, not our good works.
Romans 3:21- 24 (read). (PPT)
(pause)
For the Catholic…
Grace is a substance that is put into us.
It begins at baptism.
Then there is the sacrament of confession and penance, which you do (acts of charity, or, indulgences- where you pay with money for the forgiveness of your sins).
There is the mass, and at death there is the last rites.
These are meant to solve the problem of hell.
If you didn’t have time to do penance after confession.… (you fell under a bus)-> purgatory.
Catholic (PPT)-
Humanity is partly capable of pleasing God.
Christ died for “sin”
Grace is a substance.
Grace-> comes into the believer-> helps the believer do good works-> believer becomes righteous-> saved.
Salvation happens all through life (and into purgatory if needed).
Salvation is conditional.
= Grace plus good works.
But….
Cranmer (the Bible!)-
Humanity is totally incapable of pleasing God (Romans 8:8- those who are in the flesh, cannot please God).
Christ died for “sinners”
Grace is God’s attitude towards us.
Grace-> God overlooks our disobedience and saves us.
Salvation happens in a moment!.
Salvation is unconditional.
= Grace alone.
(pause)
And so….
ii. Good works come after faith.
Good works comes after, not before someone is converted.
Romans 6:13-14.
Ephesians 2:8-10.
Henry was afraid of what Cranmer taught. He never fully embraced the teaching of his archbishop.
One reason, was that the king was VERY concerned about obedience. This was a country racked by civil wars. The king wanted obedient subjects.
Henry thought that if you teach “grace”, people will just sin more and more.
Like the imaginary questioner in Romans- Romans 3:31, Romans 6:1 (read).
(pause)
Cranmer said, good works are part of the Christian life.
In fact, a very big part.
They are not optional.
But they come after faith. And they flow out of love for God
Which brings me to my third point…
ii. Obedience is not skin deep.
The obedience of penance was skin deep.
Good works were just mechanical. They were tacked on the end of the Christian life.
Cranmer taught, that obedience flows out of a love for God,.. they are part of our love for people which flows out of our understanding of the gospel.
(pause)
And he was right.
The Bible is not a rule book that informs the mind, but a gospel message that moves the heart.
He noticed that the Latin Bible had translated repentance “do penance”.
What is penance?… things the priest would tell you to do, in order to fix up your relationship with God.
Cranmer realized that repentance is much more than that. It means changed mind- and included in that,…changed heart.
This is a very important lesson for us. “the human heart wants rules… it wants dos and don’ts”
It wants quick fixes.
I want Andrew or Gordon to tell me “what now?”
When the most important thing is God… that I love out of gratitude for HIS LOVE… That I depend more and more on Jesus.
God is concerned about our motives!
(pause)
Cranmer did love.
His obedience to God was not skin deep.
It was real.
He really showed he understood the gospel.
At one point in his life there was a great plot by the Catholic bishops, called the Prebendary Plot, to have Cranmer killed.
Those involved collected evidence about Cranmer, and brought it before the king- the king was cracking down on protestants…. There were a number of them killed. And Cranmer was a protestant. His enemies confronted the king with the teaching of Cranmer.
Miraculously, he survived the plot.
(pause)
Cranmer forgave those enemies who tried to kill him.
“Unmerited forgiveness” was his response to those who personally wronged him.
He even later promoted some of those who tried to kill him.
He also loved an unloveable king.
Nobody else loved Henry 8th. He was impulsive… he was unpredictable…and powerful. Thomas Cromwell, his vice gerent (who was his right hand man, was put to death. There were bishops, both protestant and catholic burnt at the stake… it was a scary time).
Cranmer could have run away to Europe (but he didn’t).
Henry had no real friends- except Cranmer.
Cranmer loved the king.
Not because he was loveable.
And not because he believed it made him acceptable with God.
And it wasn’t superficial- Cranmer was a straight shooter.
It was because he was so grateful to Jesus.
(pause) (pause) (pause)
One of the saddest things about today is that Europe has forgotten it’s reformation past.
In Germany, the greatest minds have written about God. But there is a criticism of the Bible. An arrogance over the Bible.
Liberals head the theology faculties at the universities.
In the Church of England, in England, and much of the world too, is in a very sad state.
Peter Jensen said of an incident recently in a famous Chapel in Britain: ‘A female layperson conducted a brief prayer service. She was doing this in an Anglican Church. She commenced by ringing a Buddhist bell three times. She concluded with a prayer, “May the god who is God in your judgment, according to whatever faith you hold, give you peace.”’ (Synod 2006).
Amongst many bishops and clergy in England, their authority is no longer Scripture alone.
There are other sources of authority that sit alongside Scripture- reason, and tradition.
And when Scripture is read or sung,… it is for it’s beautiful language…. Not it’s content.
God’s Word is believed to be continually evolving.
The message of the world has become the message of the church, rather than the message of the church become the message to the world.
And not surprisingly,…. Churches are shrinking.
This is what’s happened to England.
There are pockets of evangelicals… but they are the minority, and they have little if any influence on the hierarchy.
(pause)
What are we to do?
We actually need another reformation don’t we!
We need to pray. That he would raise up another Martin Luther or Thomas Cranmer.
The word of God needs to be preached again. That would actually be the ANGLICAN THING TO DO. Cranmer believed that preaching was the mission of the church.
That is the real reminder of the reformation.
To stand firm. To stand up for the truth.
We must stand against Anglicanism that denies the uniqueness of Christ, and the clear teaching of the Bible.
Which is why this week Peter Jensen said that the old lines of communion with England are changed forever.
(pause)
And to our Catholic friends.
The Catholic church has had it’s own reformation.
And there are many trully converted people in the Catholic church.
But the OFFICIAL TEACHING of the church still teaches that we are saved by “grace plus”, and the Word of God is the “Bible plus”.
There is a lot of overlap between Catholicism and Anglicanism…. but there are real fundamental differences I cannot accept.
-> and so we need to share the gospel with our Catholic friends.
(that would be the loving thing to do)
(pause)
Cranmer went to the stake 150 years ago.
When Mary became queen, she plunged England back into Catholicism, and set about burning all the protestants.
Cranmer was captured and stood firm.
The truth was SO important. It was life and death.
And it is the same now… for it is about salvation. To deny that we are saved through Christ alone is to preach another gospel… in fact it is to deny the gospel.
Paul says “if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose”.
The reformation is still important!.
Amen.